What is the maximum coverage area for WAC6503d-s?

jmullaney

We are planning to use a single WAC6503d-s Access Point (AP) at a small outdoor gathering (about 100 people). The gathering is far from other Wifi networks.  What is the maximum coverage area (in either sq ft, radius, or cone) of a single WAC6503d-s?

Should we try to put the AP over the gathering, as if it were mounted on a high ceiling? If so, how high?

Or should we mount the AP on more-or-less the same level as the gathering but mounted vertically, as if it were mounted on a wall, "aiming" out at the gathering? If so, how high off the ground should we mount it?

If we can't get a large enough radius using a single WAC6503d-s, is our only option to buy one or more additional APs (connected with AP controller or VLAN switch), or might we use less expensive (un-managed) Wifi repeaters?

Any other questions I should be asking?

Any layout diagram you can point me to?

Thanks.

Zyxel_Panda

Hi @jmullaney

The outdoor coverage of WAC6503D-S is about 100 meters and indoor coverage is around 20 meters for high density application, in fact it depends on your environment, please make sure your AP is located on the line-of-sight (LoS) view places and it's better where there is no obstacles between AP and your clients.

You can also refer to the antenna specification with gain , VSWR , Polarization and XZ-Plane of WAC6503D-S as below link:
https://www.zyxel.com/support/download_landing/product/wac6500_series_3.shtml?c=gb&l=en&pid=20140312170714&tab=Antenna_Specification_Matrix&pname=WAC6500%20Series

The recommended concurrent station number of WAC6503D-S for hotpots like surfing the Internet or checking the email(around 1M traffic) is 125, for enterprise application like video conference or so on (around 5M traffic) is 35, so if your user number is around 100 , please consider your application scenario to decide using more APs.

However, WAC6503D-S can be installed by wall or ceiling mount method.

• Ceiling mount is suitable for open area like your current case or living room.
• Wall mount is suitable for narrow spaces such as corridors.

My experience is that height of AP is suggested in 6~7m for ceiling mount.

As well as I suggest to use some site survey tool like Zyxel ZWO or Ekahau survey software before deploying the APs.
So you can use it to plan the layout/map estimating AP numbers or fine tune the coverage through some trial and errors measuring the received signal strength.

Thanks!

jmullaney

Thanks, this info was very helpful.

Our "gathering" is actually a lecture with a small amount of interaction from each person in the group of people using their smartphones.  The Wifi will not be used for internet access, just access to a local server.  The interaction with each person will be less than 1 kbps.
Given this scenario, what is approximately the maximum number of users we can handle with just a single WAC6503D-S?

Also, If we can't get a large enough coverage using a single WAC6503d-s, is our only option to buy one or more additional APs (connected with AP controller or VLAN switch), or might we use less expensive (un-managed) Wifi repeaters?

 

Zyxel_Panda

Hi @jmullaney

Depending on your scenario seems deploying one AP should be suitable for your application,but you can also consider AP's load balancing as backup to buy additional APs.

Except your environment is not easy to deploy wired cable and less throughput considerations are suitable for using Wifi repeaters.

Thanks!

Zyxel_Panda

Hi @jmullaney

The outdoor coverage of WAC6503D-S is about 100 meters and indoor coverage is around 20 meters for high density application, in fact it depends on your environment, please make sure your AP is located on the line-of-sight (LoS) view places and it's better where there is no obstacles between AP and your clients.

You can also refer to the antenna specification with gain , VSWR , Polarization and XZ-Plane of WAC6503D-S as below link:
https://www.zyxel.com/support/download_landing/product/wac6500_series_3.shtml?c=gb&l=en&pid=20140312170714&tab=Antenna_Specification_Matrix&pname=WAC6500%20Series

The recommended concurrent station number of WAC6503D-S for hotpots like surfing the Internet or checking the email(around 1M traffic) is 125, for enterprise application like video conference or so on (around 5M traffic) is 35, so if your user number is around 100 , please consider your application scenario to decide using more APs.

However, WAC6503D-S can be installed by wall or ceiling mount method.

• Ceiling mount is suitable for open area like your current case or living room.
• Wall mount is suitable for narrow spaces such as corridors.

My experience is that height of AP is suggested in 6~7m for ceiling mount.

As well as I suggest to use some site survey tool like Zyxel ZWO or Ekahau survey software before deploying the APs.
So you can use it to plan the layout/map estimating AP numbers or fine tune the coverage through some trial and errors measuring the received signal strength.

Thanks!

jmullaney

Thanks, this info was very helpful.

Our "gathering" is actually a lecture with a small amount of interaction from each person in the group of people using their smartphones.  The Wifi will not be used for internet access, just access to a local server.  The interaction with each person will be less than 1 kbps.
Given this scenario, what is approximately the maximum number of users we can handle with just a single WAC6503D-S?

Also, If we can't get a large enough coverage using a single WAC6503d-s, is our only option to buy one or more additional APs (connected with AP controller or VLAN switch), or might we use less expensive (un-managed) Wifi repeaters?

 

Zyxel_Panda

Hi @jmullaney

Depending on your scenario seems deploying one AP should be suitable for your application,but you can also consider AP's load balancing as backup to buy additional APs.

Except your environment is not easy to deploy wired cable and less throughput considerations are suitable for using Wifi repeaters.

Thanks!